Is homeopathy accepted by the medical community?

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LebLlama

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I ask because I have an opportunity to shadow a Homeopathic M.D. Would it be considered as good as, say, shadowing a radiologist? Or is it frowned upon by the medical school app reviewers?

If its not accepted by medical schools as true experience, or if the politics between those for it and against or whatever will get in the way, it might be better that I dont waste my time.
 
I would just call it shadowing experience... homeopathy is not very widely accepted. You don't have to say that the doc was homeopathic.
 
I ask because I have an opportunity to shadow a Homeopathic M.D. Would it be considered as good as, say, shadowing a radiologist? Or is it frowned upon by the medical school app reviewers?

If its not accepted by medical schools as true experience, or if the politics between those for it and against or whatever will get in the way, it might be better that I dont waste my time.

If you're not a troll: Absolutely not. While some MDs dabble in homeopathy and CAM (complementary and alternative medicine), the majority of the community rejects these as unscientific and harmful. If you want to be a doctor, shadow a real doctor. If you want to be a homeopath, then save your money on med school and go start practicing now.
 
I am going to chew on some fresh basil that I grew in my herb garden, get a good night's sleep, because I just finished my ob-gyn rotation and I am tired, and let the fresh basil regenerate my tired body and brain, and then think about your question when I wake up tomorrow, and give you my opinion.

After I have a strong cup of high priced coffee, that I will grind myself, and then lounge in my queen sized bed and read the New York Times for an hour, listening to the rain beat against my window, like bullets bouncing off of my wall. I will get back to you.

Homeo what?
 
If you're not a troll: Absolutely not. While some MDs dabble in homeopathy and CAM (complementary and alternative medicine), the majority of the community rejects these as unscientific and harmful. If you want to be a doctor, shadow a real doctor. If you want to be a homeopath, then save your money on med school and go start practicing now.

Your reaction to it is what I fear will happen if they see it on my application. Even though I dont want to practice homeopathic methods, I was attempting to get as much experience in different fields as possible and I happened to have an offer by an MD who practices homeopathy.

Maybe I better call and cancel our arrangements. I can find another physician Im sure.
 
I ask because I have an opportunity to shadow a Homeopathic M.D. Would it be considered as good as, say, shadowing a radiologist? Or is it frowned upon by the medical school app reviewers?

If its not accepted by medical schools as true experience, or if the politics between those for it and against or whatever will get in the way, it might be better that I dont waste my time.


Homeopathy is bull****. I would get a deep sense of gratification as i tore your app up and threw it in the recycling. This is even if u had a 4.0 and a 35t.
 
Your reaction to it is what I fear will happen if they see it on my application. Even though I dont want to practice homeopathic methods, I was attempting to get as much experience in different fields as possible and I happened to have an offer by an MD who practices homeopathy.

Maybe I better call and cancel our arrangements. I can find another physician Im sure.

A: homeopathy is a "field" in medicine like witchcraft is.
B: im highly dubious of ur credentials as an app just by knowing youre seriously considering this.

End.
 
I think the Adcom members would expect you to know something about the difference between science and BS. Diluting medications/toxins/whatever beyond the point of a single molecule of the substance being present and claiming it can treat/heal an ailment makes no feasible sense. This is especially true since all water we drink has been in contact with small amounts of probably every chemical imaginable.

Don't shadow a homeopath. At best it will make you seem naive. At worst, they might think you buy this kind of nonsense.
 
This has been posted before but is so worth posting again

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0[/YOUTUBE]
 
A: homeopathy is a "field" in medicine like witchcraft is.
B: im highly dubious of ur credentials as an app just by knowing youre seriously considering this.

End.

A: I knew next to nothing about the field of homeopathy until I recieved the offer today, got home and researched exactly what it is while posting on here. I wasnt aware of a lot of the stuff Im reading.

B: I could care less what you think of my credentials as you'll never be in a position to review them.
 
I think the Adcom members would expect you to know something about the difference between science and BS. Diluting medications/toxins/whatever beyond the point of a single molecule of the substance being present and claiming it can treat/heal an ailment makes no feasible sense. This is especially true since all water we drink has been in contact with small amounts of probably every chemical imaginable.

Don't shadow a homeopath. At best it will make you seem naive. At worst, they might think you buy this kind of nonsense.


This response was really helpful, thank you a lot.

Yeah, Im not liking what Im reading about homeopathy. Good thing I decided to research it first...
 
I am going to chew on some fresh basil that I grew in my herb garden, get a good night's sleep, because I just finished my ob-gyn rotation and I am tired, and let the fresh basil regenerate my tired body and brain, and then think about your question when I wake up tomorrow, and give you my opinion.

I think you're mixing up homeopathy and naturopathy.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2hiCRUy-bE[/YOUTUBE]

Best line and best summation of homeopathy, "Aryan blood runs thicker than water, and gets thicker the more you dilute it."
 
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I think you're mixing up homeopathy and naturopathy.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2hiCRUy-bE[/YOUTUBE]

Best line and best summation of homeopathy, "Aryan blood runs thicker than water, and gets thicker the more you dilute it."

Yeah, I don't really give a crap about the difference between homeopathy and naturopathy. But after I wake up tomorrow, drink some coffee, read the Times, and take a crap, I will give it some thought.
 
Naturopathy can lead to scientific innovations (herbology -> chemists making a discovery -> drugs). Homeopathy cannot.

I wonder if ND's (Doctors of Naturopathic Medicine) can prescribe medical marijuana.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march112010/wash-pot.php

Nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants may also authorize medical cannabis.
Marijuana
Courtesy: listverse.files.wordpress.com

(OLYMPIA, Wash.) - A bill to expand Washington State's medical marijuana law cleared the state legislature today, and is headed to the governor's desk.

SB 5798 allows naturopathic doctors, nurse practitioners, and advanced physicians' assistants to recommend the medical use of cannabis to their patients.

The new law will increase patient access to health care professionals willing to authorize medical cannabis. Because of the conflict between state and federal pot laws, many doctors fear retribution from the federal government and are reluctant to sign medical cannabis paperwork.

To comply with the law, many qualifying patients are forced to travel to the city and pay $200 to see a doctor willing to sign an authorization form.

Also included in the bill is a provision that requires medical cannabis authorizations written after June to be printed on "tamper-resistant" paper that will also be required for all prescription forms in the state.

SB 5798 was supported by the Cannabis Defense Coalition, a Seattle-based activist group that tracks medical cannabis prosecutions in the state. The group hired veteran lobbyist Lonnie Johns-Brown to move the bill forward this session.

"Cannabis is an effective, safe and natural medicine," said group spokesman Ben Livingston. "Patients with symptoms relieved by medical cannabis deserve the protection of our law, whether they see a regular doctor or a naturopathic physician. This bill will help increase safe access to this therapeutic, plant-based medicine."

===========================================

Source: The Cannabis Defense Coalition, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit member cooperative focused on marijuana activism in Washington State.
 
I ask because I have an opportunity to shadow a Homeopathic M.D. Would it be considered as good as, say, shadowing a radiologist? Or is it frowned upon by the medical school app reviewers?

If its not accepted by medical schools as true experience, or if the politics between those for it and against or whatever will get in the way, it might be better that I dont waste my time.

I'm a little freaked out about homeopathy at the moment. My fiance's family is really into it, and they all go to a homeopathic MD/DO (the dual degree seemed odd to me in the first place). When I was injured last summer, his mom gave me a "remedy" that I was supposed to take daily. I forgot about it, but when I healed quickly, she was thrilled that it "worked." I didn't correct her. I just forgot to take it...I figured it was harmless.

I'm a pharmacology major, and we spend more time on toxicology than any medical program would bother to spend, since med schools and other clinical programs can teach what they need to teach about this in a quick lecture. Our program is rooted in biochemistry and cell biology. Instead of learning how to prescribe, we learn how drugs work at a molecular level, and how they affect receptors and mediate different pathways. Our toxicology professor discussed the real dangers of herbal "remedies" whose effects are not well-known. A few, including aristolochic acid (found in many herbal preparations) have recently been characterized as dangerous enough that legislation is being pushed (as recently as February 2010) to have the FDA regulate them.

It's interesting to me, because I've always been uncomfortable with putting patients on complicated drug regimens unnecessarily. I'd love to see people lose weight, exercise, quit smoking, and only take Lipitor if they truly have a genetic LDL-receptor defect that makes it impossible to lower their cholesterol levels. But as the saying goes, it's better to choose a poison you know rather than one you don't.

I figured they were innocuous and unnecessarily costly, but it sounds like they may be more harmful than previously thought. It may not look good if serious research breakthroughs are made that prove homeopathy dangerous (instead of just "silly" in the minds of health care professionals) in the time that you're shadowing a homeopathic doctor, regardless of his/her qualifications. I probably would have answered differently a year (or even a month) ago. Just a thought.
 
^ Knows way too much medicine before med school even started for him.
 
^ Knows way too much medicine before med school even started for him.

LMAO! Morsetlis, I thought you knew me better than that! I'm actually learning a lot this year that is tangentially applicable to medicine, but more interesting to PhD students. Still, while I won't apply half of what I'll learn here, it's still more fun and relevant than the nitty gritty details of Roh's interruption of RNA transcription in biochem II 🙂

I can't wait until I'm only learning the relevant stuff! My brain is full, and I'm suffering acute senioritis...
 
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